A very happy puppy...

A very happy puppy ... and her equally happy human.  The puppy is Lucy, a little smooth-coat tri-color border collie.  She's very smart, and (for her age) unusually confident.  Her human is A. J. – Michelle H.'s youngest son, and a few weeks ago the thing he wanted the most in his life was a puppy.  He's been completely devoted to Lucy for several weeks now, and he's working with Debbie to learn how to train her.  He wants to run her in agility!

Paradise ponders: bountiful hay, crazy doorbell, and touchupalooza edition...

Paradise ponders: bountiful hay, crazy doorbell, and touchupalooza edition...  Our north field and Tim D.'s field (at right) were both baled last night.  The fellow doing the baling worked well into the night; I don't think he finished until after 10 pm.  Last crop, about six weeks ago, Tim set a personal hay record – best in 35 years –  with 325 standard bales.  This crop is going to beat that by at least 20%.  The main factor causing this was the weather – we had lots of hot, sunny days.  I don't think Tim's going to try for another cutting this year, so that means pretty soon his horses will have the run of that beautiful field.  They'll be especially happy because there will be about a month's growth that they can gnaw down...

Two people emailed me wanting to see the doorbell switch I described but didn't post a photo of.  That's it, installed, at left.  It works fine, but we've discovered that we have a slightly problem: if we're upstairs we can't hear the darned thing!  That's probably also true if we're downstairs.  Looks like we might need a doorbell that rings in three places inside the house – and maybe it should send us a text, too...

I spent much of this morning painting – touch-up work, mainly on trim.  We had a lot of places where the trim had taken some hits, most likely from when we've moved furniture or other big things inside the house.  It's easy work, but a bit tedious.  After that I did my “water chores”: added salt to the water softener, changed the sediment filters (we have two in series), and changed out the ultraviolet bulb in our water purifier.  That last bit is an annual ritual – not really very difficult, but because I do it so infrequently I have to re-learn what to do each time. :)  I imagine I'll be able to keep changing the filters and that UV bulb for quite a few more years before I'm too feeble – but I'm more concerned about the salt.  It comes in 40 pound bags that have to be carried from the garage down to the basement mechanical room, then lifted waist-high and dumped into the saline tank of the water softener.  There will come a time when those things are beyond me, perhaps not so many years from now.  The only solution I can come up with for that problem is to hire a local kid to come do it for me!